Sosua - Verizon internet.

I don't know all the details, but I believe that the VIP plan is "dial up" (56kbps) service with unlimited minutes.
For the DSL,(256 kbps) they will have to come to your house, to install and program the router.

Rocky said:

I don't know all the details, but I believe that the VIP plan is "dial up" (56kbps) service with unlimited minutes.
For the DSL,(256 kbps) they will have to come to your house, to install and program the router.

Click to expand...

Marc, I think he has the basic DSL which is 128. If that's the case he only needs to call Verizon and upgrade to whatever plan he wants. (2 or 3 year contract). The VIP plan (At least in my case) has to do with the phone and not DSL.

I have to admit that I'm not all that familiar with all the plans. I have friends who have the VIP plan, and are on "dial up".
Maybe Tor has a higher version of VIP.
Anyhow, it sounds like you already have a router in your house, Tor, otherwise you wouldn't be getting 256 kbps.
So, back to Tor's question, I really don't know if you can upgrade at the Playero.
I guess it's worth trying, before making the trip to POP.

Tor said:

Thanks.
No , I have no router. I have a DSL modem.
Maybe my most important question remains. If I upgrade to plan 3, I'm supposed to receive 768 Kbps. Can I trust that I will get that ? Does anybody have experience ?

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Go to www.dslreports.com run the speed test a few times over the next 3-4 days and post your results here.

My experience with Verizon internet is you get around 80% of the bandwidth they promise you consistently, and that is the best you can hope for around here.

If they can not deliver anything close to the speed they promise they will credit you if you whine and cry alot, I tried it.

If I'm not mistaken VIP refers to your phone service, not the DSL plan, in the olden days of "codetel" the VIP was required to get DSL connected, not so anymore. I

Tor said:

Thanks.
No , I have no router. I have a DSL modem.
Maybe my most important question remains. If I upgrade to plan 3, I'm supposed to receive 768 Kbps. Can I trust that I will get that ? Does anybody have experience ?

Click to expand...

If you are refering to an outboard device, supplied by Verizon, it's actually a router, not a modem.
Anyhow, back to your question, my friend Steve upgraded to the higher speed service, and he said it didn't make any difference at all, except on his phone bill, so he went back to the regular service.
The speed you get on the DSL here, depends greatly on the distance from the main trunk.
As we are only one block from the trunk, tonight I am drawing in "Votre bande passante actuelle : 370.4 kbps "
Some of my friends in town, never get more than 220.
As Robert mentioned, you can run tests on the internet.
http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html?type=dsl&kbps=304.7&ISP=codetel&AreaCode=809
http://www.pecunia.ca/speedtest.asp

Robert said:

Go to www.dslreports.com run the speed test a few times over the next 3-4 days and post your results here.

Click to expand...

On this test site, these are the results.
2005-09-21 00:43:43 EST: 289 / 209
Your download speed : 296739 bps, or 289 kbps.
A 36.2 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 214436 bps, or 209 kbps.

Using the Speakeasy server at DSL reports, this is what we have averaged over the past 7 months with Verizon Plan 2:

2005-02-11 12:52:15 EST: 397 / 307
Your download speed : 407134 bps, or 397 kbps.
A 49.6 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 315349 bps, or 307 kbps.

2005-02-16 10:32:47 EST: 357 / 298
Your download speed : 365718 bps, or 357 kbps.
A 44.6 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 305244 bps, or 298 kbps.

2005-02-22 14:38:35 EST: 385 / 288
Your download speed : 394374 bps, or 385 kbps.
A 48.1 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 295793 bps, or 288 kbps.

2005-04-25 09:33:08 EST: 15 / 89
Your download speed : 16117 bps, or 15 kbps.
A 1.9 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed is much faster than down.. have you tweaked?
Your upload speed : 92060 bps, or 89 kbps.

2005-04-25 09:37:46 EST: 117 / 125
Your download speed : 120707 bps, or 117 kbps.
A 14.7 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 128040 bps, or 125 kbps.

2005-07-20 14:35:10 EST: 382 / 302
Your download speed : 392064 bps, or 382 kbps.
A 47.8 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 309775 bps, or 302 kbps.

2005-08-11 20:10:01 EST: 403 / 307
Your download speed : 413394 bps, or 403 kbps.
A 50.4 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 314864 bps, or 307 kbps.

2005-08-12 12:30:30 EST: 355 / 280
Your download speed : 363752 bps, or 355 kbps.
A 44.4 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 287287 bps, or 280 kbps.

2005-09-12 17:02:07 EST: 368 / 311
Your download speed : 377729 bps, or 368 kbps.
A 46.1 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 318723 bps, or 311 kbps.

2005-09-21 01:34:34 EST: 245 / 301
Your download speed : 251468 bps, or 245 kbps.
A 30.6 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 308317 bps, or 301 kbps.

Do you have a regular DSL line, or one of the upgraded versions, Tor was refering too.
I notice that my numbers are lower than yours, including this morning, which are almost identical to lastnight's.
2005-09-21 04:37:33 EST: 291 / 209
Your download speed : 298433 bps, or 291 kbps.
A 36.4 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 214646 bps, or 209 kbps.

Tor said:

Thanks for the answers. I have tested my line, and I receive about what I'm paying for with my present plan. As I read of the answers I might not get much more by uppgrading to plan 3, but I might try it out anyway.

Click to expand...

Are you going to tell us what it is,(the speed) or just keep us guessing?

Tor said:

re Rocky
Don't sure what you mean, I wrote that I got about what I'm paying for, 256 kbp. Ofcourse it varies a bit, but its very close to 256 all the time. The whole reason that I started this thread, is that it's not sufficient for all of my use. If I'm going for the plan 3, I will inform you about how it turns out.

Click to expand...

I was refering to the test page that Robert posted.
If we all use the same test site, we will have direct comparisons and a standard that permits us to evaluate how good or bad an internet service is in a given location.

As far as I know there are few people who use Aster's cable modem service that are happy with it.

Tor, if you want to use internet for watching TV I think you may be dissapointed regardless what service you use.

Being in the DR causes certain latency issues that would make it difficult to stream live video in any watchable quality.

I however, have discovered a way to watch TV with the 256 plan and now have a virtual Tivo that works great - it's called Bit Torrent.

All you have to do is:

1) install yourself a bit torrent client like Azureus,

2) then check the listings for whatever was on the night before that you might want to see,

3) then go to a certain website that starts with torrentspy and ends with dot com

download the episode you want and watch it at your leisure.

I find that generally a 1 hour program will download overnight pretty consistently, also if I set up a download in the early morning before leaving to work it will usually be ready for "prime time" viewing by the time I get home.

If the show is popular enough you can even get back episodes from years ago. Works great, I have a home PC dedicated to downloading TV shows and hardly ever watch live TV any more unless it's the news.

I even have a satelite dish and receiver that I haven't bothered to set up since my last move 9 months ago.